The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the Florida Conference of Black State Legislators, and the Florida State Conference of the NAACP have submitted a letter to the Voting Section Chief at the US Justice Department objecting to the state of Florida’s pending Section 5 Voting Rights Act submission of HB 1355, which amends the state’s election laws.

They provide a wealth of evidence from the state’s five Section 5 counties documenting the potential retrogressive effect of HB 1355 on minority voting rights, specifically:

(1) a reduction in the number of days for early voting from 14 days to 8 days;

(2) a requirement that registered voters who have moved between counties cast provisional ballots rather than regular ballots; and